Fig 1. Seshat, goddess of writing

In 1971, art historian Linda Nochlin famously asked, “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?”. Examining the Western artistic canon, Nochlin argued that instead of asking where female artists are, we should instead ask why they are absent from the modern historical record. Talented female artists existed but societal structures and institutional obstacles often prevented them from gaining recognition in artistic circles. Though Nochlin spoke of modern art in the Western world, this shift in perspective is relevant to the search for female literacy in ancient Egypt (defined here as any ability to read or write). While male literacy is well-documented through titles and monuments, the lack of evidence for women may reflect where we are looking, not whether female literacy existed. 

The Traditional Model of Literacy 

In ancient Egypt, male scribes held positions of high status in the royal administration. Their literacy was formal, taught in elite schools, publicly commemorated in tombs and monuments, and an important tool in curating social status.  Women, by contrast, were largely excluded from scribal training, as their expected roles mainly centred around the household and child-rearing. Other roles included temple priestesses, musicians, dancers, seamstresses, midwives, wet nurses, or very rarely, physicians. 

Because the traditional model of literacy is tied to the administration of Egypt, it is unsurprising that early scholarship found little evidence of a female equivalent. The feminine form of the scribal title, ‘sšt’, though rare, is attested. Yet, as Mariam Ayad has recently demonstrated, it has consistently been dismissed within Egyptological scholarship as evidence for female literacy. In 1969, Posener translated sšt as “scribe of her mouth,” interpreting it to mean “cosmetician”—someone responsible for applying makeup to a woman’s lips—despite the lack of evidence for lip cosmetics in ancient Egypt, an interpretation which proved popular. Ayad, however, convincingly argues that sšt is better understood as “(female) scribe of her utterance,” possibly referring either to a woman serving another in a secretarial capacity or to a scribe recording her own creative expression. Regardless of its exact meaning, by focusing only on elite titles, we overlook alternative contexts where women may have read and written, namely in the domestic and private spheres.  

Gay Robins, in her work on gender and sexuality, importantly stresses that most surviving texts and monuments from ancient Egypt were produced by and for (elite) men, which limits our understanding of women’s lives. Women may have gained literacy within royal or private households, especially among temple communities or elite families, and used it in informal ways not captured by official titles or records. Robins also emphasises that literacy was not a social marker for women as it was for men. A woman’s value was not tied to her literacy, which may explain why her skills were not commemorated in tombs or titles. 

Collating the Evidence 

Baines and Eyre’s 1983 article, “Four Notes on Literacy,” was the first to collect evidence of female literacy from across ancient Egyptian history. Alongside scribal titles and attributes, more ‘indirect’ evidence was presented, such as a writing palette of the Amarna princess Meketaten, a Late Ramesside letter referencing a potentially literate woman, correspondence addressed to and sent by women, letters to the dead from women, love poems written from a woman’s perspective, and references to female writing in mythology and stories (e.g., Seshat as the goddess of writing and, the Demotic story of Setne Khamwas and Naneferkaptah which speaks of the wife of a prince who can read and write). These examples were tentatively presented but emphasised the need to search outside the scribal elite for signs of female literacy. 

Fig 2. Princess Meketaten’s palette (18th Dynasty), Metropolitan Museum of Art

Visual Evidence: Theban Tomb Scenes 

By 1984, art historian Betsy Bryan took a closer look at New Kingdom tombs, particularly in Thebes, identifying depictions of women with scribal palettes beneath their chairs. Previously dismissed as decorative or associated with nearby men, Bryan argued these attributes were intentional. In some scenes, women appear alone with palettes under their own seats. Most, such as the Dynasty 19 figure Henuttawy in TT69, held temple titles like “Songstress of Amun,” suggesting how their literacy may have been used. They were likely not professional scribes but part of a class where administrative roles, and the associated literacy, held social value. 

Fig 3. Scribal palette beneath Henuttawy’s chair, Tomb of Menna (TT69)

Case Study: Henuttawy’s Letter 

In a Late Ramesside letter (LRL 58), Henuttawy, the wife of the necropolis scribe Menna, references an earlier message from her husband and appears to act on his behalf in official matters. Scholars have debated whether she physically wrote the letter herself, but her administrative role, documented in both the letter and taxation records, suggests some degree of literacy. Deborah Sweeney also noted that Henuttawy quotes directly from a prior letter, an act that likely required reading ability. Whilst Henuttawy held no official title, she demonstrates that female literacy could exist in informal, household-based, or auxiliary administrative contexts that rarely made it into the formal record. 

Non-Elite Evidence: Deir el-Medina 

Perhaps the strongest case for female literacy comes from Deir el-Medina, a workmen’s village near Thebes. This unique archaeological site preserves an abundance of textual ostraka, small sherds of pottery used for legal, administrative, and more informal writing such as letters, shopping lists, and personal notes among others. One ostrakon (O. DeM 132) records a woman named Ese asking another, Nubemnu, to make a shawl and sanitary towel. Sweeney argues that these letters could have been written and read aloud by scribes, but this seems an unnecessary inconvenience given the relatively small size of the community where messages could be passed along verbally. The sheer volume of texts also suggests a broader literacy base. Additionally, Toivari-Viitala shows that some girls in Deir el-Medina may have received informal education, providing a possible avenue to literacy. 

A Needed Shift in Focus 

The search for female literacy in ancient Egypt highlights broader issues in how we study the past: whose stories get preserved and what types of evidence we consider valid. As interest continues to grow in gender studies, domestic life, and household archaeology, we may uncover more traces of literate women, not in formulaic, elite inscriptions, but in humble scraps of pottery, marginal tomb scenes, and overlooked letters. Until then, the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Literate women existed. We just need to look in the right places. 

Selected Bibliography 

Ayad, M. F., ‘Moving Beyond Gender Bias’, in M. F. Ayad (ed.), Women in Ancient Egypt (Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2022), 29–59. 

Baines, J. and Eyre, C., ‘Four Notes on Literacy’, Göttinger Miszellen 61 (1983), 65-96. 

Bryan, B. M., ‘Evidence for Female Literacy from Theban Tombs of the New Kingdom’, Bulletin of the Egyptological Seminar 6 (1984), 17-32.  

Janssen, J. J., ‘A Notable Lady’, Wepwawet: Research Papers in Egyptology 2 (1986), 30-31.  

Nochlin, L., ‘Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?’, in V. Gornick and B. K. Moran (eds), Woman in Sexist Society: Studies in Power and Powerlessness (New York, 1971), 480 -511.  

Robins, G., Women in Ancient Egypt (London, 1993). 

Sweeney, D., ‘Henuttawy’s Guilty Conscience’, JEA 80 (1994), 208-212. 

Sweeney, D., ‘Women’s Correspondence from Deir el-Medina’, in G. M. Zaccone (ed.) Congresso Internazionale di Egittologia: Atti, Proceedings of the International Congress of Egyptology, Turin, Italy, 1-8 September 1992 II (Turin, 1993), 523-539.  

Toivari-Viitala, J., Women at Deir el-Medina: A Study of the Status and Roles of the Female Inhabitants in the Workmen’s Community during the Ramesside Period (EU 15; Leiden, 2001).